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Sunday, June 18, 2006
Like father like daughter's
Lawyer Teodoro Almase with lawyer daughters Melina A. martinez (left) and Sylvia A. Suarez.
Teodoro A. Almase has been a lawyer for 42 years. A product of Abellana National High School, he was already a geodetic engineer (from the University of Southern Philippines) when he took up law in the University of the Visayas. He was a fourth placer in the 1963 bar exam (an improvement over his eight place in the geodetic engineering board exam)..Daughter Sylvia notes that her dad could not take the bar right away when he finished law as she was born and so the family had no money for the bar exam.
Married to the former Araceli Gonzales, Almase built up his law practice specializing in land cases, geodetic engineering
being also about land boundaries. He enjoys his law practice because, to quote him, “I like solving problems for people and we do some pro bono case. Of course, we also have big corporate accounts."
Aside from practicing law, he also teaches civil law review in UV, and for 20 years, from 1972 to 1992, he was vice-president of Atlas Mining. Of law practice he says “It’s really hard work, especially to win cases in court. What the public sees or perceives in trial work constitutes only 15% of the actual work of the lawyer; 85% is research and office work. We also practice anticipatory law, meaning we review contracts for clients or draft them to prevent future litigation. And we also study the latest laws and jurisprudence to advise clients so that they will not run afoul of the law. It’s a very satisfying, very fulfilling work.”
In the early years of his law career, home and office were one and the same. So his two daughters Sylvia and Melina became familiar with law practice when they were still toddlers. In the afternoons, says Sylvia, their father would be “making his pleadings in his beat-up typewriter. And he would bring us to court with him, especially out of town.” Sylvia took up BSBA and law at the University of San Carlos.
She says she is involved in civic work. “In that aspect, I veered away from Daddy, I was the immediate past president of the Cebu Lady Lawyers Association. In that group, we did a lot of free legal aid for indigent members of the community. We are very much into environmental things. We do lectures and seminars for the environment, especially for solid waste management. We are also into good governance and we put a drop box for comments at the Register of Deeds with the aim of improving service in government offices.”
Because the Supreme Court decision came a few weeks back, Sylvia (now Mrs. Suarez) recalled her first case. She says it was a case her father refused. Her place in the office then was near the door for she had not yet earned her own cubicle. A group of people coming from her father’s office looked despondent and so she asked them what was wrong. They were marginal lessors of a lot the owner had promised to sell to them, but one of them bought the whole lot. They wanted to be able to buy their land as promised. Sylvia accepted their case pro bono and when she told her father what she had done, he told her “You have to work very hard if you want to win the case.” And win she did.
Melina (now Mrs. Martinez) took up AB Economics in UP and law at the University of San Carlos. She says the analytical approach in economics is a natural progression for law in its logical thinking. In the Asia Pacific Legal 500 for the year 2005/2006 where the law firm is listed, she is specifically cited as “a recommended litigator.” The reason for that, she said, could be the many labor and civil cases she handled for the firm. “Litigation is stressful because I appear in court, I appear in quasi-judicial bodies because I represent the clients’ interests. I represent clients in the Department of Labor.”
Melina, who placed 20th in the bar exam and 1st in the realty exam, adds that she and Sylvia always had to work their way up. Before they earned their degrees, they already worked in the office as secretary, filing clerk, messenger. “He did not believe in cutting the slack for us. We had to work for what we got.”
If both girls, like their dad, are successful in their law practice, it is because, as Sylvia puts it, “Daddy always told us that the quality of the work is what matters. Daddy’s standards are very high so we have to give 100% to each of our clients because for the client, it is very important.”
With such stressful careers, the three have their individual ways of relaxing, recharging. Atty. Almase reads “heavy books and has a vast collection of classical music and movie classics. Sylvia is into cross-stitching and is just now learning to cook. Melina studies the Bible, the Old and New Testaments at night.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (June 18, 2006 issue)
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